Cypher
The Cypher is a saucer-type unmanned aerial vehicle used for surveillance and communication support of land and marine operations. Information The Cypher is capable of vertical take-offs and landings in tight areas measuring as small as 3.5 meters. It uses a ducted airstream from its rotors and the surrounding shroud to fly and can stay airborne for approximately three hours. The Cypher also features a fully autonomous system that allows for tracking and analysis of man-sized targets, with its flight pattern and output controlled from a nearby Integrated Mobile Ground Station. The Cypher transmits its status and mission data to its controller via data-link. An armed variant known as the Gun Cypher, is equipped with a machinegun for use as an unmanned weapon. History In 1974, the CIA mercenary group Peace Sentinel used unmanned weapons known as "Kidnappers" that possessed a similar appearance to the later Cyphers. In 1984, the mercenary group Diamond Dogs used unmanned surveillance vehicles to guard Mother Base. In 2007, a United States Army Cypher was used to photograph Solid Snake aboard the . The photographs were later used by the Patriots to frame Snake and Philanthropy for the tanker's destruction. After initially mistaking it for a Marine Cypher-T, Otacon speculated that the reason the Army had sent the craft was because they had an interest in the Marines' Metal Gear RAY project, similar to the Gurlukovich Mercenaries.Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Konami Computer Entertainment Japan (2001). This is mentioned in a Codec call to Otacon during the Tanker Chapter. At some point between 2007 and 2009, the military developed the machinegun-armed Gun Cypher.Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (script), Konami Computer Entertainment Japan (2001). The Colonel calls in a Codec warning to Raiden as he encounters a Cypher (an unmanned aerial surveillance vehicle). // Colonel: Raiden, watch your back! That’s a Cypher, a type of UAV! // The Gun Cypher is a new model. Display the Cypher visual inside the Codec screen In 2009, both surveillance and armed Cypher variants were used by the terrorist group Sons of Liberty to guard areas of the Big Shell, many of which were evaded by FOXHOUND operative Raiden. Upon discovering an intruder, the Cyphers would alert any nearby patrols via data transmission to its controller. A Cypher was responsible for alerting the Tengu commandos of Raiden's and Solid Snake's presence within Arsenal Gear's Ileum section. Behind the scenes In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the Cypher's sensors can be temporarily confused by using chaff to set up an electronic interference field, which also blocks its movement. The Cypher itself can be destroyed in one hit from a rifle or handgun by damaging its camera, or in the case of Gun Cyphers, its gun. Solid Snake uses a Cypher for vertical recovery in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. An unlockable trophy describes the Cypher thusly: An unmanned aerial surveillance vehicle used by the U.S. Army. It uses a fan in the center of its body to hover and a camera on its upper fuselage to monitor from the skies. It has a number of models, including the armed Gun Cypher and the remodeled Cypher II. Its small size and continuous flight ability make it extremely effective in guarding against intruders. While it is most likely a coincidence, the term "Cipher" (with a "i" instead of a "y") would later be used in the Metal Gear series to refer to the early incarnation of The Patriots, which first appear in Metal Gear Solid 2 along with the drone''.'' Gallery Mgs2hd1.png|Gun Cyphers attack Raiden in the Alert Phase, during the Plant Chapter. 3d 05.gif|3D model of the Cypher, from The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2. Appearances *''Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty'' *''Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance'' *''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' Notes and references See also *Sikorsky Cypher on Wikipedia Category:Aircraft Category:Technology Category:Unmanned weapons Category:MGS2 weapons Category:Patriots Category:Sons of Liberty